Keeper for door bolts



June 7, 1949.

W. H. SCHNEIDER KEEPER FOR DOOR BOLTS Filed Feb. 18, 1947 E49. 7 E49. 6 .Zlz'g. 9 Arrae/vn Patented June 7, 1949 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICIE KEEPER FOR DOOR BOLTS William H. Schneider, Pittsburgh, Pa.

Application February 18, 1947, Serial No. 729,342

3 Claims. (Cl. 292-340) My invention relates to keepers for use in connection with door bolts and particularly in connection with bathroom doors or other inside doors of a house, wherein the doors are provided with a lock bolt or the like, that is operable from only one side of the door, and has for its object the provision of a bolt keeper of such form that when the bolt is in its operative position, the door will be held against opening movement under such.

forces as may normally be employed in opening a door but which will yield or separate from the door jamb under abnormal forces applied to force the door open, without breaking or damaging the door or its associated parts.

The invention will be of particular utility in case a child or ill person locks himself in a room and is unable to unlock the door, in that a person, from the outside, will be able to push the door open without the use of such excessive force as will cause damage.

More specifically, my invention comprises a keeper or stop for the door bolt, which is held with sufilcient friction to prevent disarrangement of the keeper parts under the usual door-opening forces, but will yield when a greater force is applied there to the door.

This keeper plate can also be made to suit a commonly used door lock with a latch operated by a knob and a bolt operated by a key, from both sides of the door, such as is quite often used on bathroom doors. The purpose being to be able to replace the old keeper plate with this new one and not disturb the present lock in the door.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 is a face view of a portion of a door and a door jamb taken at that side which contains the door bolt operating knob; Fig. 2 is a view taken on the line 11-11 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a face view, on an enlarged scale, of the keeper structure of Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is a view taken on the line IV-IV of Fig. 3; Fig. 5 is a view taken on the line VV of Fig. 3; Fig. 6 is a view taken on the line VI--VI of Fig. 5; Fig. '7 shows the invention employed on a combined latch and bolt keeper plate; Fig. 8 shows a keeper plate and a stop plate of modified form, and Fig. 9 is an edge view of this keeper plate.

A portion of a door is shown at l and a door jamb at 8, the door being provided with the usual knob at 9 for operating a latch, which does not constitute a part of this invention. A knob Ill of conventional form for operating a door bolt I I is provided on that side of the door at which it is desired to bolt the door against entrance from the other side.

My improved keeper comprises a keeper plate I2 that will be attached to the door lamb in the conventional manner by screws. However, the plate has a rectangular opening cut therein, and those portions of the plate immediately above and below said opening are pressed rearwardly as shown more clearly at I3 and I4 to function as tongues for engagement by groove-like portions of a stop plate I5.

The stop plate I5 is slit to permit of flanges I6 and I1 being bent therefrom to form groovelike elements for engagement with the tonguelike portions I3--I4. The outer edge of the plate I5 is bent to form a flange I8, which is for the purpose of covering up the opening that must be cut into the door jamb at 2|], for free outward movement of the lock bolt when an emergency calls for forcing the door open.

The flanges I6 and I! will be bent into snug engagement with the adjacent sides of the elements I3 and I4 and will, in effect, clasp such elements with considerable frictional force. However, to increase the frictional resistance to the separation of the stop plate I5 from the keeper plate I2, indentations I9 will be made in these overlapping members by a suitable punch, or the frictional surfaces may be suitably roughened.

The frictional resistance offered by the members I3--IB and I 4II will be sufficient to prevent separation of the parts by the thrust of the door bolt I I on the keeper, under ordinary dooropening forces, but in cases of emergency, extraordinary force will cause the bolt to pull the stop plate out of the keeper plate I2, without damage to the door or the bolt and keeper parts. Following an emergency opening of the door, the stop plate may readily be driven back into its position in the keeper plate.

My invention may be embodied in various other forms such as that shown in Fig. 7, for example. Here, a keeper plate ZI can serve both the door latch and the door bolt, as is common. In this case, I apply my stop plate I'5 to the lower part of the keeper plate, below the latch opening 22, in substantially the same manner as in Figs. 4 to 6.

Referring to Figs. 8 and 9, the keeper plate I2a is slit and bent to form frictional gripping elements 25, of generally cylindrical form, for studs 24 that are welded to the stop plate I 5a.

I claim as my invention:

1. A keeper structure for door bolts, comprising a keeper plate adapted for connection flatwise to a door jamb and having a bolt-receiving opening cut therethrough intermediate its ends, from one vertical edge thereof, portions of the keeper at the vertically-spaced edges of the opening being deflected rearwardly from the plane of the plate, and a stop plate having channels formed thereon that receive and have frictional lit with said deflected portions and having an opening between said channels for the reception of a bolt.

2. A keeper structure for door bolts, comprising a keeper plate adapted for connection flatwise to a door jamb and having a bolt-receiving opening cut therethrough intermediate its ends, from one vertical edge thereof, portions of the keeper at the vertically-spaced edges of the opening being deflected rearwardly from the plane of the plate, and a stop plate having channels formed thereon that receive and have frictional fit with said deflected portions and having an opening between said channels for the reception of a bolt, those portions of the stop plate at the outer plane of the keeper plate fitting within the depressions at the outer sides of the said deflected portions.

3. A keeper structure for door bolts, comprising a keeper plate adapted for connection flatwise to REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,676,390 Halferty July 10, 1928 20 2,094,119 Flora Sept. 28, 1937 2,180,516 Gehnrich Nov. 21, 1939 

